Dear friends, this is me signing off for the year and wishing you the warmest and fuzziest of all holiday wishes. Don't you just love this time of year where you have this perfect vantage point between years? It's my favourite. Like using up the last bit of shampoo.

Truthfully, it wasn't an easy year for me. Things did not exactly go as planned. Things got kinda dark for me. I felt lonely. I felt rejected. I felt guilt. I questioned myself. I gave up. I cried. Like, a lot.

You know what though? Things moved ahead and did that balancing out thing that life tends to do. There were victories. Much joy. Many firsts. Endless good fortune. In all honestly, never have I felt luckier to be me. To be here.

I took a little break from blogging last week because I had some creative block and I don't think anything good ever comes from forcing these things. Instead I read a trashy crime novel, figured out how to use iMovie, planned out some things for an upcoming trip to Bergen, Norway and a few other things which I'll fill you in on in this edition of one plus four.

One. I found this lovely wooden frame in an op shop for about a pound knowing that it would make the perfect home for my new air plant. I just tied the plant on on with string that I'll untie when I watering about once a month. And can you see the little bit of green poking out from the zebra pot? That's my newest baby succulent which was propagated from the leaf of another. I'll never not be excited by plants.

I've been in New York for the last couple of weeks to work on the second Arthur Street Kitchen Cookbook with Luisa and Hetty. Remember this? It feels like an absolute lifetime ago that I wrote that gushy post and to think we got to do it again - in NEW FLIPPIN YORK - is a dream come true, in the corniest of ways. Here's what these two weeks looked like, in just four photos.

One. This was a little behind the scenes moment that captures Luisa's uniform of cute dresses and boots, the kind of silly fun we had every day and our collective new appreciation for the moody autumn light.

I'm forever having identity issues with this blog in that I want my posts to be polished and perfect, while at the same time being spontaneous and reflective of my every day life. My site's back end is full of unfinished posts that never make it past draft because they just don't seem 'worthy'. Which is where 1 + 4 = Life comes in. Basically it'sa brilliant link up started by Pip and now hosted by Isabel with the idea to post four photos, once a week (or more likely weekish in my case) to document and share life. So simple. Here goes my first one!

One. Caro and Rose needed some lifestyle photos and head shots for their new website and social media so I went over to their beautiful home and we had a lot of fun. Aren't they so photogenic? It was definitely one of my favourite shoots ever and such a plus for my portfolio.

Being on the opposite side of the world for an extended time to where I've lived in my entire life, the topsy turvy seasons have me dazed just a little. I mean how do you ever get used to a 9.30pm sunset? Or being invited to moonlight cinema in August? Hydrangeas popping up in June? Madness.

Summer was a bit of a strange one this year, for these obvious reasons and more. I can't say that it didn't get hot here, but I missed the HEAT. The endless kind that makes sleeping impossible, long sleeves or jeans unfathomable, and slushies a requirement. The kind that makes you crave winter. In many ways the last few months have felt like a drawn out spring and my body is still waiting for the main event to happen.